Download or read book Atomic Environments written by Neil Shafer Oatsvall and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2023-02-21 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In "Atomic Environments," Neil S. Oatsvall examines how top policymakers in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations used environmental science in their work developing nuclear strategy at the beginning of the Cold War. While many people were involved in research and analysis during the period in question, it was at highest levels of executive decision-making where environmental science and nuclear science most clearly combined to shape the nation's policies. Because making and testing weapons, dealing with fallout and nuclear waste, and finding uses for radioactive byproducts required advanced understanding of how nuclear systems interacted with the world, policymakers utilized existing networks of environmental scientists-particularly meteorologists, geologists, and ecologists-to understand and control the United States' use of nuclear technology. Instead of profiling individuals, Oatsvall focuses on executive institutions, especially the leadership of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and high level officials in the Truman and Eisenhower White Houses, including the presidents, themselves. By scrutinizing institutional policymaking practices and agendas at the birth of the nuclear age, a constant set of values becomes clear: "Atomic Environments" reveals an emerging technocratic class that consistently valued knowledge about the environment to help create and maintain a nuclear arsenal, despite its existential threat to life on earth and the negative effects many nuclear technologies directly had on ecosystems and the American people, alike. "Atomic Environments" is divided into five chapters, each of which probes a different facet of the entanglement between environment, nuclear technologies, and policymaking. The first three chapters form a rough narrative arc about nuclear weapons. Chapter One situates bombs in their "natural habitat" by considering why nuclear tests occurred where they did and what testers thought they revealed about the natural environment and how they influenced it. Focusing on nuclear fallout, Chapter Two argues that nuclear tests actually functioned as a massive, uncontrolled experiment in world environments and human bodies that intermingled medicine, nuclear science, and environmental science. Chapter Three shows how the environmental knowledge gained in the first two chapters led to nuclear test ban treaty talks during the Eisenhower era, when the advancement of environmental knowledge and the natural world itself became crucial grounds of contention in the creation of nuclear test detection and evasion systems. The last two chapters step away from weapons to question how other nuclear technologies and facets of the U.S. nuclear program interacted with the natural world. Chapter Four examines agriculture's place in the U.S. nuclear program, from breakthrough advances in agricultural science including the use of radioisotopes and the direct application of radiation to food, to "atomic agriculture's" public relations value as a peaceful proxy, which shifted the moral calculus and further leveraged the U.S. government's atomic power. Chapter Five shows how knowledge of the natural world and the functioning of its systems proved important to uncovering the most effective ways to dispose of nuclear waste. Running throughout, Oatsvall consistently demonstrates how the natural world and the scientific disciplines that study it became integral parts of nuclear science, rather than adversarial fields of knowledge. But while nuclear technologies heavily depended on environmental science to develop, those same technologies frequently caused great harm to the natural world. Moreover, while some individuals expressed real anxieties about the damage wrought by nuclear technologies, policymakers as a class consistently made choices that privileged nuclear boosterism and secrecy, prioritizing institutional values over the lives and living systems that agencies like the AEC were ostensibly charged to protect. In the end, Oatsvall argues that although policymakers took their charge to protect and advance the welfare of the United States and its people seriously, they often failed to do so because their allegiance to the U.S. nuclear hierarchy blinded them to the real risks and dangers of the nuclear age"--
Download or read book The Atomic West written by Bruce W. Hevly and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Manhattan Project—the World War II race to produce an atomic bomb—transformed the entire country in myriad ways, but it did not affect each region equally. Acting on an enduring perception of the American West as an “empty” place, the U.S. government located a disproportionate number of nuclear facilities—particularly the ones most likely to spread pollution—in western states. The Manhattan Project manufactured plutonium at Hanford, Washington; designed and assembled bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico; and detonated the world’s first atomic bomb at Alamagordo, New Mexico, on June 16, 1945. In the years that followed the war, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected additional western sites for its work. Many westerners initially welcomed the atom. Like federal officials, they, too, regarded their region as “empty,” or underdeveloped. Facilities to make, test, and base atomic weapons, sites to store nuclear waste, and even nuclear power plants were regarded as assets. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, regional attitudes began to change. At a variety of locales, ranging from Eskimo Alaska to Mormon Utah, westerners devoted themselves to resisting the atom and its effects on their environments and communities. Just as the atomic age had dawned in the American West, so its artificial sun began to set there. The Atomic West brings together contributions from several disciplines to explore the impact on the West of the development of atomic power from wartime secrecy and initial postwar enthusiasm to public doubts and protest in the 1970s and 1980s. An impressive example of the benefits of interdisciplinary studies on complex topics, The Atomic West advances our understanding of both regional history and the history of science, and does so with human communities as a significant focal point. The book will be of special interest to students and experts on the American West, environmental history, and the history of science and technology.
Download or read book Nuclear Wastelands written by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A handbook for scholars, students, policy makers, journalists, and peace and environmental activists.A handbook for scholars, students, policy makers, journalists, and peace and environmental activists, Nuclear Wastelands provides concise histories of the development of nuclear weapons programs of every declared and de facto nuclear weapons power, as well as detailed surveys of the health and environmental effects of this development both in these countries and in non-nuclear nations involved in nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining. Among the more obvious but largely deferred costs of the Cold War are those related to the management of radioactive waste. The world is burdened with thousands of unwanted nuclear devices and mounting surpluses of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium. In addition, the process of weapons production and testing has left many lands, aquifers, rivers, lakes, and seas contaminated by a multitude of weapons-related poisons. This book follows the production process step by step and country by country from uranium mining to the final assembly and storage of weapons, analyzing the potential hazards of each step and compiling the most complete information available on the actual health and environmental effects, in each country involved. Nuclear Wastelands includes a wealth of information that has only recently come to light, particularly on the nuclear weapons program of the former Soviet Union. It also features critical analyses of official public communications concerning the health and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons production, bringing to light governmental secrecy and outright deception that have led to the subversion of democratic principles, and have camouflaged the damage done to the very people and lands the weapons were meant to safeguard.
Download or read book Atomic Geography written by Melvin R. Adams and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the first environmental engineer at Hanford, Melvin R. Adams spent 24 years on its 586 square miles of desert terrain. His thoughtful vignettes recall challenges and sites he worked on or found personally intriguing--like the 216-U-pond, contaminated with plutonium longer than any place on earth. In what Adams considers his most successful project, he helped determine the initial scope of the soil and solid waste cleanup. His group also designed and tested a marked, maintenance-free disposal barrier, expanded a network of groundwater monitoring wells, and developed a pilot scale pump and treatment plant. Adams shares his perspective on leaking high-level waste storage tanks, dosimeters, and Hanford¿s obsession with safety. He even answers his least favorite question, insisting he does not glow in the dark. He leaves that unique ability to spent fuel rods in water storage basins--a phenomenon known as Cherenkov radiation.
Download or read book Containing the Atom written by J. Samuel Walker and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late 1960s saw an extraordinary growth in the American nuclear industry: dozens of plants of unprecedented size were ordered throughout the country. Yet at the same time, public concern about the natural environment and suspicion of both government and industry increased dramatically. Containing the Atom is the first scholarly history of nuclear power regulation during those tumultuous years. J. Samuel Walker focuses on the activities of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the agency entrusted with the primary responsibility for the safety of nuclear power, and shows that from the beginning the AEC faced a paradox: it was charged with both promoting and controlling the nuclear power industry. Out of this paradox grew severe tensions, which Walker discusses in detail. His balanced evaluation of the issues and the positions taken by the AEC and others makes this study an invaluable resource for all those interested in the continuing controversies that surround nuclear energy. The late 1960s saw an extraordinary growth in the American nuclear industry: dozens of plants of unprecedented size were ordered throughout the country. Yet at the same time, public concern about the natural environment and suspicion of both government and industry increased dramatically. Containing the Atom is the first scholarly history of nuclear power regulation during those tumultuous years. J. Samuel Walker focuses on the activities of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the agency entrusted with the primary responsibility for the safety of nuclear power, and shows that from the beginning the AEC faced a paradox: it was charged with both promoting and controlling the nuclear power industry. Out of this paradox grew severe tensions, which Walker discusses in detail. His balanced evaluation of the issues and the positions taken by the AEC and others makes this study an invaluable resource for all those interested in the continuing controversies that surround nuclear energy.
Download or read book Minerals and Reactions at the Atomic Scale written by Peter R. Buseck and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-12-17 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 27 of Reviews in Mineralogy provides a background to the TEM as a mineralogical tool, to give an introduction to the principles underlying its operation, and to explore mineralogical applications and ways in which electron microscopy can augment our knowledge of mineral structures, chemistry, and origin. Much time will be devoted to mineralogical applications. It provides sufficient information to allow mineralogists and petrologists to have an informed understanding of the data produced by transmission electron microscopy and to have enough knowledge and experience to undertake initial studies on their own. The opening chapters cover the principles of electron microscopy and chemical analysis using the TEM; while the following chapters consider mineralogical, petrological, and geochemical applications and their implications, for both low- and high-temperature geological environments. The Mineralogical Society of America sponsored a short courses in conjunction with their annual meetings with the Geological Society of America, and this volume represents the proceedings of the eighteenth in the sequence. This TEM course was convened October 23-25, 1992, at Hueston Woods State Park, College Comer, Ohio.
Download or read book The Atomic Archipelago written by Davide Orsini and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1972, the US Navy installed a base for nuclear submarines in the Archipelago of La Maddalena off the northeastern shore of Sardinia, Italy. In response, Italy established a radiation surveillance program to monitor the impact of the base on the environment and public health. In the first systematic study of nuclear expertise in Italy, Davide Orsini focuses on the ensuing technopolitical disputes concerning the role and safety of US nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean Sea from the Cold War period to the closure of the naval base in 2008. His book follows the struggles of different groups—including local residents of the archipelago, US Navy personnel, local administrators, Italian experts, and politicians—to define nuclear submarines as either imperceptible threats, much like radiocontamination, or efficient machines at the service of liberty and freedom. Unlike inland nuclear power plants, vividly present and visible with their tall cooling towers and reactor containers, the mobility and invisibility of submarines contributed to an ambivalence about their nature, perpetuating the idea of nuclear exceptionalism. In Italy, they symbolized objects in constant motion, easily removable at the first sign of potential harm. Orsini demonstrates how these mobile sources of hazard posed special challenges for both expert assessments and public understandings of risk, and in contexts outside the Anglo-Saxon world, where unique social power dynamics held sway over the outcome of technopolitical controversies.
Download or read book Journal of the Institute of Metals written by Institute of Metals and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues for Sept. 1951- include the Bulletin.
Download or read book Atomic Habits Summary by James Clear written by James Clear and published by James Clear. This book was released on with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SUMMARY: ATOMIC HABITS: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. This book is not meant to replace the original book but to serve as a companion to it. ABOUT ORIGINAL BOOK: Atomic Habits can help you improve every day, no matter what your goals are. As one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, James Clear reveals practical strategies that will help you form good habits, break bad ones, and master tiny behaviors that lead to big changes. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. Instead, the issue is with your system. There is a reason bad habits repeat themselves over and over again, it's not that you are not willing to change, but that you have the wrong system for changing. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” - James Clear I’m a huge fan of this book, and as soon as I read it I knew it was going to make a big difference in my life, so I couldn’t wait to make a video on this book and share my ideas. Here is a link to James Clear’s website, where I found he uploads a tonne of useful posts on motivation, habit formation and human psychology. DISCLAIMER: This is an UNOFFICIAL summary and not the original book. It designed to record all the key points of the original book.
Download or read book Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry written by Chemical Society (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Principles of Radiation Interaction in Matter and Detection written by Claude Leroy and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2011-09-23 with total page 1041 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, like the first and second editions, addresses the fundamental principles of interaction between radiation and matter and the principles of particle detection and detectors in a wide scope of fields, from low to high energy, including space physics and medical environment. It provides abundant information about the processes of electromagnetic and hadronic energy deposition in matter, detecting systems, performance of detectors and their optimization.The third edition includes additional material covering, for instance: mechanisms of energy loss like the inverse Compton scattering, corrections due to the Landau?Pomeranchuk?Migdal effect, an extended relativistic treatment of nucleus?nucleus screened Coulomb scattering, and transport of charged particles inside the heliosphere. Furthermore, the displacement damage (NIEL) in semiconductors has been revisited to account for recent experimental data and more comprehensive comparisons with results previously obtained.This book will be of great use to graduate students and final-year undergraduates as a reference and supplement for courses in particle, astroparticle, space physics and instrumentation. A part of the book is directed toward courses in medical physics. The book can also be used by researchers in experimental particle physics at low, medium, and high energy who are dealing with instrumentation.
Download or read book Governing the Atom written by John Byrne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Promoted as a form of limitless, low-cost energy without the polluting effects of Its fossil fuel counterparts, nuclear power has enjoyed unparalleled support in several countries. Despite the development of an extensive set of policy and institutional mechanisms to foster its use. nuclear technology has been troubled by a wide range of problems and continues to pose risks many believe are far greater than society should accept. The legacy of failure ranges from catastrophic accidents like that at Chernobyl to the declaration of bankruptcy by the Washington Public Power Supply System. Governing the Atom explores why support for the technology remains substantial. The first part of this volume examines the social institutions that have accompanied the development of nuclear power. The second part details the numerous accommodations which have been required of society, beginning with the technology’s Impact on communities and geographic regions particularly affected by mining and milling. The technology’s inherent tendency towards "normal accidents” and the conflict between expert and public opinion on the dangers involved is examined, as are the on-going problems of waste disposal and decommissioning. The volume concludes with an examination of nuclear power developments in France, Germany. Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Eastern Europe, Korea, and Japan. The volume provides a needed vehicle for the timely consultation and dissemination of current research on important energy policy issues. Governing the Atom provides insightful commentary regarding the initiation and development of nuclear technology. It will be of interest to policymakers, energy and environmental experts, sociologists and historians of technology, and all those interested in the problem of democracy in a technological society.
Download or read book Supported Metal Single Atom Catalysis written by Philippe Serp and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-02-09 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: b”Supported Metal Single Atom CatalysisCovers all key aspects of supported metal single atom catalysts, an invaluable resource for academic researchers and industry professionals alike Single atom catalysis is one of the most innovative and dynamic research areas in catalysis science. Supported metal catalysts are used extensively across the chemical industry, ranging from fine and bulk chemical production to petrochemicals. Single atom catalysts (SACs) combine the advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts such as catalyst stability, activity, and high dispersion of the active phase. Supported Metal Single Atom Catalysis provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of the emerging field, covering the synthesis, preparation, characterization, modeling, and applications of SACs. This comprehensive volume introduces the basic principles of single atom catalysis, describes metal oxide and carbon support materials for SAC preparation, presents characterization techniques and theoretical calculations, and discusses SACs in areas including selective hydrogenation, oxidation reactions, activation of small molecules, C-C bond formation, and biomedical applications. Highlights the activity, selectivity, and stability advantages of supported metal SACs compared to other heterogeneous catalysts Covers applications of SACs in thermal catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis Includes chapters on single atom alloys and supported double and triple metal atom catalysts Discusses the prospects, challenges, and potential industrial applications of SACs Supported Metal Single Atom Catalysis is an indispensable reference for all those working in the fields of catalysis, solid-state chemistry, materials science, and spectroscopy, including catalytic chemists, organic chemists, electrochemists, theoretical chemists, and industrial chemists.
Download or read book Year Book written by Carnegie Institution of Washington and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "List of the names of persons engaged in the various activities": v. 10, p. 243-257.
Download or read book The American Journal of Science written by and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nuclear Safety Research Development Program written by U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Division of Reactor Development and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This program is being carried out to provide a technological basis for the incorporation of the highest degree of public and personnel protection, consistent with economic and military requirements, in all the varied applications of reactors and other nuclear devices in the over-all program of the Division.
Download or read book Membranes for Environmental Applications written by Zhien Zhang and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-29 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces recent developments of membrane technologies applied to gas and water treatments, energy processes and environmental issues. Novel knowledge and mechanisms on membrane fabrication and usage in energy, chemical, and environmental engineering are detailed in 12 book chapters from France, UK, Spain, China, Nigeria, Iran and Pakistan. The information in this book will be useful for engineers, students, and experts in these fields.
